Rohvannyn Shaw's Blog: The Pencil and Quill, page 3

The story of my avatar

It was a dark, clear night.

Mars was at its closest approach in a while, and was appearing especially bright. People were coming out on their porches and stair landings to see it.

This happens in Arizona, many of us are star-mad.

I had my new Nikon camera, and wanted to see if I could get the planet in a picture.

However, at maximum zoom, it was impossible to hold the camera steady enough without a good tripod. The planet kept making these fanciful tracks across the frame.

One looked like a perfect "R..."

So my avatar, my friends, is a photograph from the night the heavens themselves spelled my name.

My first job as an illustrator

When my parents and I no longer lived near each other, we still had a desire for closeness, particularly around the holidays. We started a tradition where my mother would write a story and email it to me, I would create illustrations for it then send the finished pages back over to them, then my father would help bind and ship the story. They would go out to all the friends and relatives as their Christmas present.

I’ll admit, my illustrations were pretty bad at times.  Sometimes I really didn’t put the care into them that I needed to.  As I look back on each thin, hand-bound volume, I can see a lot of progress and I think that’s valuable.  Besides, there were other advantages too.  The extended family, who are devoted non readers, would start calling each other and discussing the story. And I got a little much needed holiday cash.  We all three had the feeling of continuing a holiday tradition that drew us together.

Now, for this year, my dad is the one who wrote the story. I had the idea to publish the last twelve or so stories into one big volume. I also would re-illustrate the stories that needed it. So “Yuletide Lights” was born. It’s fifteen stories, each one born of personal experience, and filled with the central themes of the holiday season. They stories are in general heartwarming and filled with generosity but in some truly touching ways. Each story is a slice of life, a pair of magic glasses with which you can peep into another life, another way. The story I wrote is about a lost cat in Japan, but even it happens around the Holidays. The little girl in the book my dad wrote might as well have been me, and I remember versions of many of events in these and other stories. Many times I’ve been moved to tears, working on this project.

I had fun preparing, editing and illustrating these stories, as much fun as I hope you have in reading them.

If you’d like to see this volume, it’s available both in paperback and Kindle.

 

Holiday Memories - rich ground for a writer.

Odd, how the holidays can creep up on you sometimes, in a good way.

I'm in the process of putting together an anthology right now, made of holiday stories. A little background: since I started living far away from my parents, we've had a tradition. My mom will write a story, I will illustrate it, my dad will bind it, and we'll send it out to friends and family. This year I realized "I can put those old stories together, put some new illustrations in there with the better old ones, bind that puppy, and have it ready for December!"

So I'm in the middle of that. It's made me remember what's most important about the holidays - which is giving, enjoying time with loved ones, and having fun. This year I'm in a little more stable position so I think I might actually decorate, just a bit. A few strings of lights, maybe some holiday baking. I'll still firmly ignore all the crap in the stores and the holiday programming. I'll have my holiday, on my terms.

Today something happened that reminded me, still more, of what I love about this season - the generosity. There was a random turkey drawing at work, and one of the people who won it was nearly out of food and wouldn't have had anything to eat for Thanksgiving otherwise. I was so happy when I saw him win. If I could have picked one person it would have been him.

So along with the story tradition, I'm going to rekindle an old one - a variation of the Grand Sneak Over. Though we were poor when I was young, often my parents and I would sneak over to a family and leave some kind of goodies on their doorstep, then run.

This year I'm going to give the older fellow at work a box. I'll find a way to sneak it to his desk, and I'll put things in it he can have as a diabetic. Maybe some nice apples, a small summer sausage, and some good quality cheese. I want to pay it forward.

Then I'll probably be a mercenary so and so and turn it into a holiday story for a future anthology.

Sunday Illustration

Here is the first in a series.  Every Sunday, I’ll put a recent illustration or drawing up here on the blog.  This one is part of a new holiday anthology.

Trash Burner Stove

This little drawing is for the latest Holiday Story my family is putting out.  We do this each year and are thinking, at some point, of doing an anthology.

 

 

Best Free Software for Writers

Need to edit a new book? Need to add illustrations? Need to convert it to different trim sizes? Need page numbering? Need the ability to convert to any file format including .doc and .pdf?

LibreOffice is your answer!

It's free, open source, great for Windows, Mac and Linux. It has no spyware, adware, or viruses. Why pay for an expensive editing suite when you can have this? It also comes with a PDF editor, a spread sheet generator, a publishing program, and more. It will also open nearly any file and save in nearly any format.


Now, do you need a cover, or internal art? GIMP is another free program, and it can do nearly everything Photoshop can, plus a few things it can't.

GIMP is also open source, good for Windows, Mac and Linux, and totally free.

It can do everything from enhancing and cropping photos to original digital art. It handles transparencies, layers, text, filters, and all kinds of other things. It will also open literally any format you want, and save files in any format you want. It's simply awesome.

Just search Google for either of these to find them.

And quit overpaying for your writer software!

Inktober Fun

Here’s a Raven who decided he has plenty to say. I completed him with Sakura Pigma Micron manga pens, with the darkest areas done in broad Sharpie.  The original is smallish, only about 5.5″ by 8.5″.

 

Free Book Weekend!

Since I have three books up here, I wanted to share this post with anyone who happened along.

It's a book giveaway being hosted by one of our own Goodreads Authors, P. D. Workman, and there are some great titles up for grabs! Books are free 21-23.

https://pdworkman.com/download-mito-a...

What made me a writer

I have written since I was fairly young. Before I learned to type, it was something of a chore yet I had the urge to do it. My mother writes poetry and short stories, my father writes short stories, novels, non fiction and the occasional very good poem. I definitely take after them.

Though I liked to write when I was in college, for instance, I wasn't very good at finishing things. I'd get bored too easily or I'd lose the urge to write for long periods of time. I've found that blogging has made me more accustomed to working on something every day. In fact, I hope that my Inktober practice will make me used to drawing every day as well.

Blogging started really interesting me when I joined a site that paid for views, comments, and likes on short posts. You could do up to ten a day. It taught me to write better headlines, write tighter prose, and caused me to really appreciate the five paragraph essay. That site is defunct or I'd name it here.

When the site went down, I'd saved most of my entries so I decided to use it as a start to a blog. By then I'd learned that the secret to finishing a longer piece is just to keep working on it, and not stop to edit until I had the main content of the work on paper. Editing before you are done with the rough draft is a recipe for never finishing.

So, if you have trouble finishing things, it's good to practice with shorter works, and not stop to edit!

Balancing Life

Ever have that feeling where you really want to write, but can't find the time - then when you do find the time, you can't decide what to write? That's about where I am right now. I have three works in progress at the moment and a short story that's thinking about emerging.

The short story is based on this drawing. I made it last night, for Inktober, and I think there's a story in it somewhere. It's an illustration waiting for a narrative...

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